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How to Pan Roast Chicken Breasts

Pan roasting is one of our favorite ways to cook chicken. We use the same method for cooking these lemon chicken thighs. It’s basically a two-part process. Sear the chicken in an oven-safe pan on top of the stove then slide it into the oven to finish cooking.

If we can find them, boneless skin-on chicken breasts are our go to for this recipe. Although, chicken thighs would also be great. If you cannot find chicken breasts with the skin left on and the bone out, you can make this with bone-in breasts. You can also use skinless breasts, although, I have to admit the golden-brown skin is my favorite part.

For this recipe, we cook the chicken in butter and add lots of fresh thyme — other herbs like rosemary or sage are also excellent. After generously seasoning the breasts, place them skin-side down into the hot pan.

When it’s golden brown, flip, add butter and thyme. Then spoon the melted thyme butter on top. Slide the pan into the oven so the chicken can finish cooking. While it roasts, open the oven door a couple times and spoon the butter on top of the chicken to keep it moist.

Easy Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Thyme

PREP 10mins

COOK 20mins

TOTAL 30mins

If we can find them, boneless skin-on chicken breasts are our go to for this recipe. Although, chicken thighs would also be great. If you cannot find chicken breasts with the skin left on and the bone out, you can make this with bone-in breasts. You can also use skinless breasts, although, I have to admit the golden-brown skin is my favorite part.

Makes 2 servings

You Will Need

2 boneless skin-on chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grape seed or canola

2 tablespoons butter

Handful fresh thyme sprigs

Half of a lemon, for serving

Directions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat.

Carefully place chicken breasts into hot skillet skin side down. Cook without moving until skin is deep golden brown and crisp, about 6 minutes. Carefully flip the chicken then add the butter and thyme. When the butter has melted, spoon it over the chicken several times.

Transfer skillet to the oven. Cook chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken breasts registers 165 degrees F, 10 to 15 minutes. Spoon the thyme butter over the chicken a couple times while it bakes.

Remove skillet from oven and transfer chicken to a cutting board. Let it rest about 5 minutes before serving. Serve with butter from the pan spooned on top as well as a squeeze of lemon.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.

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Hello, can you advise what we did wrong? We used a cast iron skillet since I’m not sure if I have any other oven safe skillets. The chicken took close to 40 minutes to get to 165 in the oven. I have had a hard time with recipes and the chicken breasts that I’ve tried cooking and it’s frustrating. The chicken breasts I have are boneless skinless chicken breasts and are close to the correct weight.

Hi Cade, A cast iron pan is perfect for this recipe. Are you sure the oven temperature was correct? The chicken should have come to 165F in the time you mentioned. It’s also possible the thermometer used is uncalibrated. I hope that helps a bit! Another recipe for chicken breasts (which works really well with boneless, skinless chicken breasts) is this Lemon Chicken Breast Recipe. We cook them on the stove and they turn out really juicy and tender. This Baked Chicken Breast Recipe is also a favorite.

Wonderful! It was easy to make and tasted like it took more work and time. I thought the lemon was a nice touch.
We had roasted red potatoes with it and even though those were seasoned, my son thought to spoon some of the butter sauce over the potatoes. So good! I actually used a brush to baste the chicken with the butter during the baking process.Thank you for sharing this…it is a keeper!

Love this recipe! Use it all the time! I switch it up between thyme and sage and I use unsalted butter. Yum! The skin adds a nice flavor, not sure why anyone would eat a meal that removes the flavor, but, OK. I don’t eat the skin, it’s a part of the presentation for me and adds to the flavor of the meat. Butcher removes the bones for me. AWESOME!

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